Between Somaliland and Puntland (2015) by Markus Virgil Hoehne: the contested borderlands of Sool, Sanaag and Cayn

The book

Between Somaliland and Puntland: Marginalization, Militarization and Conflicting Political Visions is by Markus Virgil Hoehne, a social anthropologist who lectures at the University of Leipzig and carried out the research while at the Max Planck Institute for Social Anthropology in Halle. It was published in London and Nairobi in 2015 by the Rift Valley Institute in its Contested Borderlands series, with about 180 pages. The text and maps are published under a Creative Commons licence and can be downloaded free (Rift Valley Institute, full text).

How it was researched

Hoehne did eighteen months of fieldwork between 2002 and 2004, followed by shorter stays between 2008 and 2013. His main field sites were Hargeysa, Laascaanood and Ceerigaabo, and he also spent long periods in Garoowe, Gaalkacyo, Buuhoodle, Badhan and Ceelbuuh (Rift Valley Institute).

In his preface he states his own position openly. He writes that over the years he came to identify, and to be identified, with the Dhulbahante communities among whom he lived, and that he was once arrested as a suspected spy in both Garoowe and Hargeysa in 2004. He presents the book as an alternative perspective to what he sees as the dominant "Hargeysa point of view" in writing on northern Somalia since 1991, to be read alongside other accounts, and says he admires what people in Somaliland and Puntland have achieved (Rift Valley Institute).

Chapters

1. Introduction
2. Political geography of the borderlands
3. The making of a contested borderland
4. Militarization of the Dhulbahante territories (2002 to 2009)
5. Dhulbahante autonomy: from the SSC to Khaatumo (2009 to 2014)
6. Warsangeli Sonderweg: resource conflict and militant Islamism in the Golis Mountains (2006 to 2014)
7. Conclusion: disentangling the contested borderlands
8. Policy considerations

The book includes maps of clan areas and of the conflict zones, genealogical diagrams, a list of principal figures and a glossary (Rift Valley Institute).

Its argument

Hoehne describes the efforts of people living between the two administrations to set up their own autonomous political orders, and argues that the borderlands are where the future political order of the Somali north will be shaped (WorldCat; Rift Valley Institute). According to one review, he finds that Somaliland and Puntland both set up parallel administrations in Sool and eastern Sanaag in the early 2000s without being able to enforce their claims, and that fighting in Laascaanood ended the stalemate and began the open militarisation of the region (WardheerNews).

The regions are described on Sool and Sanaag. Later events are on North Eastern State, Puntland and Somaliland, 1991 to 2026.

Where to read it

• Free full text: Rift Valley Institute (PDF)
• In a library: WorldCat

Related pages

• Becoming Somaliland (2008), Mark Bradbury
• Books about Somalis since 2006